Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

This collection consists of 6 letters that Emeline Breed of Salem, Massachusetts, received from her fiancé, Thomas Delf, an English businessman working in New York City. In addition to providing news of his daily life, he frequently reflected on the couple's engagement and commented on her family.

This collection consists of 6 letters that Emeline Breed of Salem, Massachusetts, received from her fiancé, Thomas Delf, an English businessman working in New York City. He provided updates on his social and business life in the city, and frequently commented on his lodgings with the Cook family, whom he found inhospitable. He made occasional trips to Brooklyn, where he met her father, Holton Breed, and her sisters. While he often wrote of his love for Emeline, particularly after a visit to her home in Salem, Massachusetts, in the spring of 1837, he occasionally mentioned his work and the economic conditions following the Panic of 1837. Several of his letters contain short poems.